LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



^/.j/ All 



PRESENTED BT 



UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



m 



UNION WHITE BOYS IN BLUE 



CONSTITUTION 



PROCEEDINGS 



SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' CONVENTION, 



HELD AT INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



ON WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH DAY OF APRIL, 1868. 



Gen. JOHN LOVE, Commanding Geneeal, 

Col. B C SHAW, Qt-artee-Masteb-GenebaL, \ Executive Committee, Indianapolis. 

Oapt. WINSTON P. NOBLE, Adjutant-Genebal, 



INDIANAPOLIS: 

sentinel pbintinq and binding establishment. 

1868. 



UNION WHITE BOYS IN BLUE 



CONSTITUTION 



PROCEEDINGS 



SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' CONVENTION, 



HELD AT INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 



ON WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH DAY OF APRIL, 1868. 



Gen. JOHN LOVE, Commanding Guneral, 

Col. B. C. SHAW, Quartee-Mabteb-Gkneral, \ Executive Committee, Indianaj)oUs. 

•Capt. WINSTON P. NOBLE, Adjutant-General, 



J 



/ 



INDIANAPOLIS : 

SENTINEL PRINTING AND BINDING ESTABLISHMENT. 
1868. 



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.1' 



UNION WHITE BOYS IN BLUE. 



PROCEEDINGS 

Of the Conservative Soldiers and Sailors of Indiana, at a 
meeting held in the city of Indianapolis, on the 8th 
day of April, 1868, on the call of General Love. 

General Love, on calling the meeting to order, stated 
the object of the call as follows: 

Gentlemen: General Meredith having removed from 
the State, I was invited to attend a meeting of the Exe- 
cutive Committee appointed by the Cleveland Convention 
of 1866, and in Washington city, on the 22d of February 
last, met with the Central Executive and State and Ter- 
ritorial Executive Committee — nearly every State and 
Territory being represented. Vacancies were filled, and 
I was elected Chairman of the Auxiliary Committee for 
our State. Entire unanimity prevailed in all the proceed- 
ings, and on no point more enthusiastically than that a 
great duty devolved upon the conservative soldiers and 
sailors of the country, in using their influence in the com- 
ing presidential struggle — 

1. In securing a candidate to carry our banner in the 
contest; and 

2. In our combined effort to elect that candidate, and 
thus rescue the country from the grasp of the ruthless 
and destructive party now in power. . 

The details of organization have been left by the Na- 
tional Executive Committee, to the States respectively. 
The followiug letter has been received from the Central 
Committee, embodying substantially the action had by 
the meeting in Washington on the 22d of February : 

Washington, D. C, March 1st, 1868, 1 
Marble Building, 460 Seventh St } 
Sir — At the meeting of the National Central Executive 
Committee, and State and Territorial Auxiliary Execu- 
tive Committees appointed at the National Convention 



Union Soldiers and Sailors at Cleveland, 1866, held in 
Washington, February 22, last, it was 

Hesolvedy That a delegate Convention of all soldiers and 
sailors who served faithfully in the Union army during 
the late rebellion, who are in favor of the Constitution of 
the United States, the restoration of the States (now ex- 
cluded) to representation, and opposed to the revolu- 
tionary legislation of Congress, be held at Cooper Insti- 
tute, city of New York, July 4, 1868. 

Second — That the State and Territorial Auxiliary Exe- 
cutive Committees for the several States and Territories, 
make arrangements, each in their respective localities, to 
secure representation, as shall to each be deemed most 
efficient. 

Third — That the delegates of each State, regardless of 
the number present, shall be entitled to cast in convention 
double the number of votes, and no more, to which such 
State is entitled in the electoral college. Each Territory 
represented and District of Columbia shall be entitled to 
two votes. 

Fourth — That the immediate formation of clubs and 
other organizations be urged upon these soldiers and sail- 
ors sympathizing with our principles, in every town, 
county and State of the Union. 

Your attention is directed to the foregoing proceedings 
of the committee, and your earnest co-operation in car- 
rying out the suggestions herein made, solicited. The 
reports from the various States are very encouraging. It 
is believed that in some of the States a majority of the 
soldiers are with us ; in others, a large and powerful mi- 
nority; in the remainder, a very respectable proportion. 
Organization only is needed to make our strength felt. 
Will you not attend to making it for your locality ? The 
Central Committee will be glad to hear from you fre- 
quently. 

Please address communications to General Hugh Cam- 
eron, No. 460 Seventh Street. 

Very respectfully, 

George P. Este, 
C. D. Pennebaker, 
Thomas Ewing, 
P. H. Allabach, 
J. W. Denver, 
Hugh Cameron, 
National Central Executive Committee, 



To perfect an organization in our State, and to be in 
harmony with the movement throughout the country, I 
have notified all who sympathize with us, to meet here 
to-day. To your deliberations, gentlemen, is committed 
an important task — that of bringing into compact and 
efficient organization, the soldiers and sailors of our State, 
who have endured the dangers and privations of the field, 
that Union and a Eepublican Government might live, and 
be handed down to remotest posterity, under the consti- 
tution which we inherited, and which has in the past 
made us, in less than a century, one of the most powerful 
countries of the earth. It may be urged by some, the 
danger of keeping up and fostering military distinctions, 
by organization such as we propose, but who are so inter- 
ested in good government as those who have risked their 
all in its defense? and why may not such, move shoulder 
to shoulder under a simple organization such as we pro- 
pose, and with which we are all familiar, in securing in 
civil life and by peaceful means, the blessings of good 
government ? And why should not those who had a com- 
mon interest in the field, and are now in harmony on the 
great problem of government, and the results we feel we 
should reap from the terrible struggle, meet in such an 
organization and keep alive those ties and friendships 
which were formed in the field, and now bind us in a 
common desire for the Union of our fathers? Conscious, 
gentlemen, in the purity of our intentions, let us go for- 
ward, and in an open organization, show to our fellow 
citizens that we desire to subserve their interests, and pro- 
tect and defend their liberties in common with our own. 
In the light of past history, and present threatening dan- 
ger — let us by all honorable means, and by our example, 
do all in our power to point out the evils to Eepublican 
institutions in secret, oath-bound political bodies. 

Can we not all see the evils to our political system, in 
the Know Nothing organization — the (mis-called) Union 
League, the Grand Army of the Republic, and all similar 
bodies ? Let us not delude our fellow soldiers into a poli- 
tical organization under the guise of exclusive charity. 
Let the widow and orphan of the war be our care — but 
let our sympathies and assistance be in the light of day. 
What, gentlemen, did the nation pledge to the world as 
the object of the war? Was it not as expressed in the 



Crittenden resolution, unrepealed to this day and which 
reads as follows : 

" That, in the national emergency, congress, banishing 
all feelings of passion and resentment, will recollect only 
their duty to their country. That the war is not waged 
for conquest or subjugation, or interfering with the rights 
or established constitutions of these States, but to main- 
tain and defend the supremacy of the constitution, with 
the rights and equality under it unimpaired. That as 
soon as those objects are accomplished, the war ought to 
cease." 

Has this pledge been redeemed? Let the action of 
congress answer. Three years since a hostile hand has 
been raised against the government, an overwhelming 
and despotic control in both branches of congress, and 
still a divided and broken Union, with no hope of peace 
and prosperity, and no semblance of a State government, 
unless under negro supremacy and negro control. 

In unsettling every business interest of the country. 

In usurping all the powers of the government. 

In legislating for partisan schemes and purposes, in 
utter disregard of all the landmarks of our government^ 
and in keeping alive the animosities engendered by the 
war. 

Is it not, then, worthy of our every energy — in season 
and out of season — to so labor as to bring back our gov- 
ernment to the days of economical, high toned, and 
statesmanlike administration ? 

On motion, Frank Cunningham was appointed Sec- 
retary. 

On motion of Colonel B. C. Shaw, a committee of three 
was appointed to present a constitution and plan of or- 
ganization, consisting of Colonel B. C. Shaw, Major H. 
N. Conklin, and Captain Fox, of Fayette. 

The Secretary then read letters from Generals Graham 
]^. Fitch and James H. Slack, and Colonels I. B. McDon- 
ald, J. V. Bemusdaffer and W. W. Frybarger, Major J. 
D. Simpson, Captain William L. McKnight, Sergeant E. 
W. Menaugh, and others, expressing regret at their ina- 
bility to attend the meeting, and heartily endorsing the 
call. 



Colonel J. W. Blake offered the following : 

Resolved, That General Hancock, by his manly recog- 
nition of the principle, that under our institutions, the 
military power, in time of peace, is ever subordinate and 
not superior to the civil laws of the land, has shown him- 
self the patriot citizen, as his services in the field proved 
him the gallant and tried soldier, devoted to the Union 
and Constitution of our fathers. 

The committee on the constitution here reported the \ 
following as the constitution and plan of organization 
for the government of the same, which was unanimously 
adopted : 

CONSTITUTION. 

This association shall be known as the " Union White 
Boys in Blue," and shall be composed of those who served 
in the army or navy of the United States, were honorably 
discharged, and now support the time-honored principles 
of constitutional government, inculcated by Washington, 
Madison, Jefferson, Jackson, Webster and Clay, and in 
defence of which, thousands of our comrades have laid 
down their lives. 

That notwithstanding attempted secession and conse- 
quent civil war, the Union of these States remains sacredly 
intact and unbroken, and that neither by the volition of 
the people of a State directly, can disunion occur; nor 
as a punishment for rebellion, can a severance of this 
Union be indirectly forced upon the country, by a revolu- 
tionary congress. 

That all efforts by pretended legislation and the em- 
ployment of military force to affect the sovereignty of 
the so-called " seceded States," and impair their constitu- 
tional rights, obligations and duties, are false and treach- 
erous to the spirit and intent of our republican institu- 
tions, and in fact, if accomplished, render the failure of 
the principle of rebellion, practically a success and tri- 
umph. 

That as soldiers in the field, true to the honor and flag 
of our country in preserving our Union against the as- 
saults of rebels in arms, we shall be equally true and 



8 

faithful at the ballot box, to save our country and flag 
from destruction at the hands of Radicalism, and thus 
preserve and perpetuate in civil life, that restoration of 
the Union which we believed we had achieved in military 
conflict. 

That the national honor, pledged to the payment of the 

public debt as it is, renders the national faith equally 

pledged to the people — the tax-payers of the country — 

against augmenting that vast public burden beyond the 

express terms thereof; and that in the absence of stipu- 

-^ lation to the oQ i amU^^ that lawful money which liquidates 

j,j^^^, the claims of disabled soldiers, widows and orphans of 

/ the War, is equally the just equivalent of the claims of 

*"*'' the bondholder. 

That without the false and deceptions pretences of be- 
nevolence, hidden under a charitable mask, by a secretly 
proscriptive political organization, earnestly recognizing 
in deeds, not words only, the claims of a generous and 
humane benevolence, we pledge ourselves to remember 
. the widow and the orphan of the war, and to minister to 
their necessities. 

That believing all secret and oath-bound political asso- 
ciations baneful and pernicious to the public peace, dan- 
gerous and destructive of public liberty, and in no sense 
compatible with the acknowledged duties and obligations 
of American citizens — we proclaim this a public organi- 
zation, open to the people, whose interests we desire to 
subserve, and whose liberties we desire to protect and 
defend, in common with our own. 

That the three co-ordinate departments of the Federal 
Government — the Legislative, Executive and Judicial — 
must be maintained in their several spheres, in all their 
rights, duties and prerogatives under the constitution, 
and that any and all attempts of either to encroach upon 
the province of the others, are in their nature dangerous 
and destructive of that balance of power essential to the 
peace and permanence of our government. 

That the radical majority in congress, by their indecent 
haste, and denial of time for deliberation and debate in 
the passage of important measures of vital interest, ac- 
knowledge the consciousness of wrong, and of their pur- 
pose to accomplish their partisan objects in disregard of 
the rights and interests of the people. 



1. That we are opposed to the suspension or destruc- 
tion of the political sovereignty of ten States of our Union 
by the arbitrary and unconstitutional action of a radical 
congress. 

2. That we are opposed to the establishment of mili- 
tary despotism in these ten States, by which the lives and 
property of their people are at the option and under the 
control of a military commander. 

3. That we are opposed to that despotism for other 
reasons, and because productive of discontent, fear, sus- 
picion and insecurity — the energies, the enterprise and 
productive industry of the country are paralyzed and the 
people impoverished. 

4. That we are opposed to the gratification of in- 
humane, sectional and partisan malignancy against the 
people of the southern States, at the cost and expense of 
the productive industry and daily toil of our laboring 
classes, who are thus compelled to pay their own and the 
taxes of the exhausted south. 

5. That we are opposed to negro supremacy and the 
domination of an inferior, degraded race in these States, 
by which one-third of our States are to be ruthlessly aban- 
doned to the mismanagement and control of barbarism ; 
and that it is not in the heart of American citizenship to 
brook the relinquishment of that vast southern domain 
to negro ownership, whilst revered memories of the bat- 
tle-fields of the American revolution and the tombs of 
Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Marion, and the patriots 
and sages of that noble era, hold a place in our hearts. 

6. That we are opposed to the extravagant and crimi- 
nally corrupt expenditures of the radical administration 
of the government. 

7. That we are opposed to all monopolies and class 
legislation, by which the rich are made richer at the sac- 
rifice and expense of the agricultural, mechanical and 
laboring masses. 

8. That we are opposed to that frenzied madness of 
partisan rancor which places love of country, devotion to 
the public good and the preservation of constitutional 
liberty, (the noblest impulses of true patriotism,) as sec- 
ondary and inferior to the dictatoral behests of "party 
fealty ;" and we hold that honesty, capacity and fidelity 
to the constitution justly embraces the true requisites for 
political preferment. 



10 

9. That the ad valorem principle of assessment by 
which the property of the country, in whatever form, is 
made subject to its equal and just ratio of taxation, is the 
only just and equitable mode of supplying the needed 
revenues of the government, and we are opposed to all 
invidious discriminations rendering public secureties ex- 
empt from taxation, and by which the laboring classes are 
thus forced to the payment of their own and taxes of the 
bondholders. 

10. That we are opposed to the Freedman's Bureau, 
maintained at the cost of millions of the people's money, 
harboring in vicious idleness and profligacy hordes of un- 
thrifty and indolent negroes. 

11. That the pretended education of the negroes at 
the south under the Freedman's Bureau system, at the 
cost and expense of the people, while our own system is 
notoriously inadequate to the proper education of white 
children, presents the glaring and atrocious inconsistency 
of our paying for twelve months schools for southern 
negroes, while our school funds are insufficient for the 
maintainance of public schools in Indiana for a period 
equal to one-fourth of that enjoyed by negro children of 
the south. 

The organization of the State shall be as follows ; One 
Major- General, one Adjutant- General, and one Quarter- 
Master-General. The above named officers shall consti- 
tute the Executive Committee, with head-quarters at 
Indianapolis. 

One Brigadier- General for each Congressional District, 
who shall appoint his own staff. For each regiment, the 
army regimental organization. For each company, the 
company organization of the army. 

The companies of one or more counties shall constitute 
a regiment, and the clubs of one or more townships or 
wards, a company. Each company and regiment shall 
make its own by-laws for its government. 

It shall be the duty of the Commanding General to pre- 
side at all meetings of the Executive Committee and to 
give all orders touching the welfare of the organization. 

It shall be the duty of the Adjutant-General to keep 
all records of the organization and to attend to the cor- 
respondence. 

It shall be the duty of the Quarter-Master-General to 



11 

take charge of the funds of the organization and to dis- 
burse the same on the order of the Executive Committee. 

It shall be the duty of Brigade Commanders to receive 
reports from the regiments of their brigades and to re- 
port monthly to the Commanding General. It shall be 
the duty of Colonels of regiment to receive reports from 
Company Commanders, to give all orders touching the 
welfare of their regiments and to report from time ta 
time to their Brigade Commanders. It shall be the duty 
of each Company Commander to report from time to time 
to the Colonel of his regiment all matters touching the 
welfare of his company. 

The uniform shall be a blue blouse with a white rosette 
on the left breast, citizens' pantaloons, and army forage 
cap. The uniform of officers may assimilate as near as 
practicable and legal to similar rank in the army. 

Each member of the organization shall, on parade oc- 
casions, carry a small National Flag attached to a staff 
six feet long. 

The mendDers of a company shall elect their Company 
Officers, and not more than ten nor less than six com- 
panies shall constitute a regiment and elect their Regi 
EQcntal Commanders. Not less than two nor more than 
six regiments shall constitute a brigade. 

General John Love was elected Commanding General 
of the organization for the State, and Colonel B. C. Shaw 
was elected Quarter-Master-General. 

On motion. General Love was authorized to appoint 
the Adjutant- General for the organization. 

On motion, the Executive Committee were authorized 
to select the Brigadier-Generals for the several districts. 

Captain Fox, of Fayette, offisred the following: 

Resolved^ That all soldiers and sailors who sympathize 
with our movement, be earnestly requested to organize at 
once under our constitution, and until a Brigadier- General 
is appointed for their district to report to the Command- 
ing General at Indianapolis. 

On motion, the meeting then adjourned. 

Frank Cunningham, John Love, 

Secretary. Chairman, 



12 

Head Quarters, Union White Boys in Blue, \ 
Indianapolis, April 11th, 1868. J 

General Order, No 1. 

Captain Winston P. Noble is hereby appointed Adju- 
tant-General of the organization for the State. 

John Love, 
Commanding Union White Boys in Blue. 



INSTRUCTIONS FOR ORGANIZING. 

First — In a ward of a city — in a village — or in a town- 
ship — from thirty to fifty soldiers, organize a company, 
and elect the usual company officers — Captain, two Lieu- 
tenants, &c., &c. 

Second — Require each member to sign the constitution 
of the organization — and enact by-laws. 

Third — From six to ten companies (the more conveni- 
ently located) unite as a regiment, and elect regimental 
officers. 

Fourth — The organization is intended to assimilate 
throughout, to the usual political organizations — compa- 
nies to the ward and township clubs; regin.ents to the 
county, and brigades to the district organization — the 
Executive Committee to the usual political State Central 
Committees. 

Mfth — In addition to reports required by the constitu- 
tion, communications will at all times, be gladly received 
at head-quarters. John Love, ' 

Commanding Union White Boys in Blue, 



